UE4 / Wwise issue - Sounds playing back in game increase in volume when debug / fly camera is activated

Question

Hello

I'm getting a strange issue whereby any sounds that are playing from Wwise in UE4 are increasing in volume by 2 to 3 dB when I activate the debug camera. This is in a 3rd person game in Unreal. Note that I haven't done anything to override the listeners, so currently the UE4 default listener is being used.

1. Hook up a sound to trigger in Wwise from the player character actor in UE4

2. Trigger the sound and observe volume

3. Activate the debug camera and observe volume increase

4. Deactivate the debug camera and observe that the volume increase is maintained even though we're back in the 3rd person camera

I can't figure this out and it's especially frustrating because I can't tell which is the 'true' volume of the audio playback in game.

Has anyone come across this issue and might be able to help?

Thanks!

Answer 1

Are you sure there isn't a second listener being activated on the debug camera? If you profile with Wwise (F6, connect to remote platform), you will see a second listener appear in the advanced profiler signal chain when you activate the debug camera if this is in fact the issue. 3-6 db does sound like it could be a second listener being activated. I am less familiar with Unreal, but in Unity the default setting adds a listener to every camera, so perhaps this is the case in Unreal as well? The volume being maintained after you deactivate doesnt quite fit this theory, but have you profiled with Wwise? You should be able to see what's adding that volume boost by looking at the signal chain. If you are using Wwise 2019, the Voice Inspector should help you here as well.

Comments

Thanks for the tip - you were right! I'll look in to the extra listener being retained as a bug...

Interestingly, by default, the following listeners seem to be active:

Player camera
Transport/Soundcaster (presume this is just Wwise's and is fine)
Unreal Global
Aklistener_gym_empty

I'm not sure if the last two should be active either, as I'd expect we only really want one at the player camera? I'm struggling to find info on best practice for listener setup in Unreal, so if you know it would be a great help.

Thanks again!

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Hi Nick,
Did that issue has solved? if yes, how do you do?, because I have the same problem.
Thanks before.